journalismfandomcom-20200213-history
Alternative journalism
Alternative media are defined most broadly as those media practices falling outside the mainstreams of corporate communication. Proponents of alternative media often argue that the mainstream media is heavily biased, criticizing their pretended objectivity as a dissimulation of class biases. Causes of this bias include the political interests of the owners, government influence or the profit motive. This criticism, paradoxically, springs from observers of all political orientations. The concentration of media ownership, as well as the concentration of the publishing industry are other causes of economical censorship. While sources of alternative media are also frequently highly (and sometimes proudly) biased, the bias tend to be different, hence 'alternative'. Alternative media outlets often engage in advocacy journalism and frequently promote specific political views, often dissident views (or, again paradoxically, views considered "dissident" from whatever the perceived mainstream; contributors to Democratic Underground and Free Republic are diametrically opposed to each other politically, and both are likely to consider themselves dissidents from an oppressive mainstream). Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky proposed a concrete model for the filtering processes (biases) of mainstream media, especially in the United States, called the propaganda model. They tested this empirically and presented extensive quantified evidence supporting the model. Their attempts to falsify the model in the Popperian sense failed. Authors such as Louis Althusser have also written in detail about the problems of the mainstream press, and their writings have inspired the creation of many alternative press efforts. Many current alternative press sources share values on copyright with the open source movement. For a medium to be considered “alternative”, it must possess some kind of counter-hegemonic quality. The counter-hegemony should be represented through at least one of the following parameters: * Content – what is being “said” * Aesthetical form – the way it is being said * Intention – the point of success * Organizational structure – how the media are being run * Process - the relationship between production and consumption of information Examples of alternative media The following is a list of news sources considered to be part of an alternative media, in both print and electronic forms: *Independent News Network *LA Freewaves *Information Clearing House http://www.informationclearinghouse.info *American Free Press *CounterPunch http://www.counterpunch.org *Online Journal *World Independent News Group *Taking Aim *Adbusters *The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com *Infowars.com http://www.infowars.com *Keene Free Press http://www.keenefreepress.com *Democracy Now *The French Connection *COA News *Z Magazine http://www.zmag.org *Traditions Magazine *EngageMedia *Earthhope Network *Great News Network http://www.greatnewsnetwork.org *Eagle World News *Indymedia http://www.indymedia.org *undercurrents (news) http://www.undercurrents.org/ *Altermedia http://www.altermedia.info *Commondreams http://www.commondreams.org *Drudge Retort http://www.drudgeretort.com *Haiduts.net http://www.haiduts.net *The Common Language Project http://www.commonlanguageproject.net *CitizenShift http://citizen.nfb.ca *Frequency The Snowboarder's Journal http://www.frqncy.com *Northern Alliance Radio Network * thewacnet.com People associated with the alternative media *Jack Blood *Christopher Bollyn *Amy Goodman *Lisa Guliani *Joseph Farah *Hugh Hewitt *Alex Jones *Jason Leopold *Sascha Meinrath *Michael Collins Piper *Jeff Rense *Michael Rivero *Michael Ruppert *Ralph Schoenman *Daryl Bradford Smith *Victor Thorn *Paul Joseph Watson *Steve Watson External links *Risorse Etiche *ACTivist Magazine *Freewaves *Alternative Press Center *Columbia Journalism Review, a bimonthly magazine that monitors U.S. media. *Committee to Protect Journalists, nonprofit organization that defends the rights of journalists worldwide to report without fear of reprisal. *COA News - Independent News Portal *Eagle World News *Dissident Voice *IFEX, monitors attacks on journalists around the world. *Interlocals.net, online alternative news platform for translating and exchanging news among non-english speaking independent media. *IPS Inter Press Service Global news agency *MANA - the Media Alliance for New Activism *Konscious TV *Media Activism *National Writers Union, a labor union that represents freelance journalists and other writers. *Media Helping Media Discussion forum for international media development. *The News Standard *One World UK *Rabble *Radical Middle *The Indie Lable Publisher *RINF: Alternative Media & News *SchNEWS *Socialist Worker *Straight Goods *Industrial Worker - The Voice of the IWW *UKWatch *Underground Action Alliance *The Common Language Project--Positive Reporting Across Bordershttp://www.commonlanguageproject.net * thewacnet.com Credit and categories Category:Newspaper chains Category:N